I’d like to thank you—our small business, accountant and bookkeeper community—for the feedback you provide our teams on the Xero features you use every day. Our latest features are a testament to this feedback, and we hope they make things a little easier for you during these difficult times.

Don’t forget, registrations for Xero On Air are now open. This free content series will be online between 14 and 17 September, and features bite-sized videos and interactive webinars designed to inspire and empower accountants and bookkeepers around the world.

Product news

Access capital through invoice financing

Last week, we announced Xero’s acquisition of Waddle, a cloud-based lending platform that helps small businesses access capital through invoice financing. It’s an important step in our strategy to help you better manage your cash flow, and we are really excited about the benefits that Waddle can bring to your business. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

New features

Type or select custom dates in Xero – Global

We’ve redesigned the date selector in Xero, so you can type in dates and more easily select custom dates from the calendar. The new date selector features a label that shows which date you’ve selected, such as ‘Last Month’, ‘This Quarter’, or ‘Custom’. We’ve also made sure dates are formatted correctly for our US customers (MM-DD-YY).

Enjoy better layouts in report templates – Global

To help you create beautiful reports for your clients, we’ve updated the default placement of text blocks and schedules in the layout editor of report templates. This means they land directly below the selected section rather than the bottom of the page. We’ve also given you the ability to control page breaks. No more pages with a single line or notes and schedules split across multiple pages.

Use your data smarter in Hubspot – Global

The latest update to the Hubspot and Xero integration provides you with more useful information about your Xero contacts, like who has already purchased from you or owes you money. If you’re on a Xero Premium plan, you can use this knowledge to inform your marketing campaigns. For example, you can remove customers with overdue invoices from emails that offer discounts or promotions.

View Xero Expenses in dark mode – Global

You can now use the Xero Expenses mobile app in dark mode, which is easier on the eyes and can extend the life of your phone’s battery. We’ve also updated our normal ‘light mode’ in the app so it aligns to the colour palettes of our other apps: Xero Projects and Xero Accounting. Dark mode was one of our most requested features, so we hope this makes it easier to use Xero Expenses every day.

Close the compliance gap – UK

Corporation Tax and Accounts Production for micro entities and small companies (FRS102 1A abridged and full accounts) is now available at no extra cost to accountants and bookkeepers on the Xero partner programme. This is another step in our journey to close the compliance gap in the UK. It will also help you digitise your practice, so you can save time, reduce errors and cut costs.

Prepare your VAT201 return in Xero – South Africa

Our new VAT201 form means you can now prepare VAT returns in Xero, saving you lots of time and making sure you meet the South African Revenue Service’s compliance requirements. Late claims are automatically handled, and we’ve also introduced a new tax rate mapping feature. This new feature gives you the ability to map your tax rates to the correct fields in your VAT201 tax return.

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